Viruses have shells made of repeated protein subunits surrounding their genetic information. Many viruses, including polio, herpes, and influenza, have icosahedraloshaped shells. It is not understood how these shells self-assemble from hundreds of similar protein subunits. A resolution to this question is important because it allows us to better understand biological phenomena in general and provides a paradigm for nano- and meso-scale self- assembling systems which will become increasingly important in materials and manufacturing. It might also eventually result in mechanisms for interrupting shell formation and interfering with the infection process. Drs. Berger (MIT) and Prevelige (Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham) are using cutting edge high performance computing and biotechnology to design a realistic computer "toolkit" that will allow biologists to study virus shell assembly on a computer screen more easily and less expensively than comparable laboratory work. The synergy of computational and biochemical approaches promises rapid advances in our understanding of virus assembly and self-assembling systems in general. This work is supported by the Computational Biology Activity (BIO), the Computational Mathematics Program (MPS), and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (MPS).
